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30-519: The Literary Digest was an American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls . Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, Public Opinion and Current Opinion . The magazine gained notoriety when its poll of the 1936 United States presidential election substantially missed the final result, predicting a landslide victory for Republican candidate Alf Landon over Democratic incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt : in

60-511: A considerable refinement of public opinion polling techniques, and later came to be regarded as ushering in the era of modern scientific public opinion research. It is also notable that every other poll made at or around this time predicted Roosevelt would defeat Landon, albeit not to the extent that he ultimately did: these polls expected Roosevelt to receive a maximum of 370 electoral votes. George Gallup 's American Institute of Public Opinion achieved national recognition by correctly predicting

90-668: A dairy farmer. As a teen, "Ted" would deliver milk and used his earnings to start a newspaper at his high school, where he also played football. He attended the University of Iowa , earning his B.A. in 1923, his M.A. in 1925 and his Ph.D. in 1928. While there he played football, was a member of the Iowa Beta chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and edited of The Daily Iowan , the campus newspaper. He then moved first to Des Moines, Iowa , where he served until 1931 as head of

120-554: A group of Funk & Wagnalls executives, who in turn sold it to Field Corporation in 1988. In 1991, the company was sold to K-III Holdings, Inc , and then in 1993 Funk & Wagnalls Corporation acquired the World Almanac . After failing to purchase rights to the text of the Encyclopædia Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia for its Encarta digital encyclopedia, Microsoft reluctantly used (under license)

150-483: A year intended. The imprint lasted into mid-1935. Unicorn Press (later known as the Standard Reference Work Publishing Co.) obtained the rights to publish the encyclopedia, and by 1953 that firm began to sell the encyclopedia through a supermarket continuity marketing campaign, encouraging consumers to include the latest volume of the encyclopedia on their shopping lists . Grocery stores in

180-495: The 1948 election by between 5% and 15%. Truman won the election by 4.5%, with Gallup attributing the error in his results to ending polling three weeks before Election Day, which failed to account for an unexpected Truman's comeback. In 1947, he launched the Gallup International Association , an international association of polling organizations. With friends-cum-rivals Elmo Roper and Archibald Crossley , he

210-491: The inflation of the 1970s . If one did not go shopping on a weekly basis, or delivery was spotty, there was a good chance that a volume might be missed to complete the set. The encyclopedia was also sold as a mail order set of 36(?) volumes; one volume a month. Also sold in grocery stores, one volume at a time, was the Family Library Of Great Music , a 22-album series of classical recordings. One famous composer

240-462: The 1970s in the Midwest (Chicago – Jewel Grocers) typically kept about four volumes in a rotation, dropping the last and adding the latest until all volumes could be acquired with the initial first volume being 99 cents. The first several volumes were gold painted along the edges and the later volumes were not. A volume was typically priced at $ 2.99, but toward the later volumes the price had increased with

270-456: The Department of Journalism at Drake University , then to Evanston, Illinois , as a professor of journalism and advertising at Northwestern University . He moved to New York City in 1932 to join the advertising agency of Young and Rubicam as director of research, serving as vice president there from 1937 to 1947. He was also a professor of journalism at Columbia University , but relinquished

300-543: The English Language in 2 volumes in 1893 and 1895, and Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia in 1912. In 1913, the New Standard Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language was published under the supervision of Isaac K. Funk (Editor-in-Chief). The New Standard Unabridged Dictionary was revised until 1943, a later edition that was also supervised by Charles Earl Funk. The encyclopedia

330-465: The Magnificent " sketch by explaining that the envelopes he would hand to Johnny Carson (in character as "Carnac") had been: "...hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall's porch since noon today!" The envelopes contained questions, to which "Carnac" would divine the answers by reading a script on his desk. In an episode of South Park (Season 7, Episode 1) entitled " Cancelled ",

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360-702: The U.S. Presidential election, besting a poll based on over two million returned questionnaires conducted by the widely-respected Literary Digest magazine. Gallup's poll was based on a more representative sample of the American electorate reflected in just 50,000 more selectively chosen respondents. He also correctly predicted the results of the Literary Digest poll a random sample smaller than theirs but chosen to match its profile. Twelve years later, his organization suffered its moment of greatest ignominy by predicting that Thomas Dewey would defeat Harry S. Truman in

390-523: The business in 1875 as I.K. Funk & Company. In 1877, Adam Willis Wagnalls , one of Funk's classmates at Wittenberg College (now Wittenberg University ), joined the firm as a partner and the name of the firm was changed to Funk & Wagnalls Company. During its early years, Funk & Wagnalls Company published religious books. The publication of The Literary Digest in 1890 marked a shift to publishing of general reference dictionaries and encyclopedias . The firm published The Standard Dictionary of

420-597: The character Eric Cartman is quoted as saying to his friends Stan, Kyle, and Kenny "What the Funk & Wagnalls are you guys talking about?", as the other boys are discussing a past memory of aliens abducting Cartman, which was a reference to the show's pilot episode. In season 1, episode 21 of " West Wing ", the character of C.J. tells the character of Toby, "Thank you, Funk and Wagnall's." Which Toby turns to another character Ginger as they are walking away from C.J., "What'd she call me?". Ginger replies, "Funk and Wagnall's. They make

450-528: The dictionary." Toby replies, "I know who Funk and Wagnall's are." George Gallup George Horace Gallup (November 18, 1901 – July 26, 1984) was an American pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll , a statistically -based survey sampled measure of public opinion . George Gallup, Jr., was born in Jefferson, Iowa , the son of Nettie Quella (Davenport) and George Henry Gallup,

480-466: The early 1900s. After Isaac Funk's death in 1912, Robert Joseph Cuddihy became the editor. In the 1920s, the covers carried full-color reproductions of famous paintings. By 1927, The Literary Digest climbed to a circulation of over one million. Covers of the final issues displayed various photographic and photo-montage techniques. In 1938, it was acquired by the Review of Reviews , only to fail soon after. It

510-405: The election, Roosevelt defeated Landon in an unprecedented landslide. The magazine ultimately ceased publication in 1938. Beginning with early issues, the emphasis was on opinion articles and an analysis of news events. Established as a weekly newsmagazine, it offered condensations of articles from American, Canadian and European publications. Type-only covers gave way to illustrated covers during

540-621: The magazine folded within 18 months of the election. In hindsight, the polling techniques employed by the magazine were faulty: they failed to capture a representative sample of the electorate, and disproportionately polled higher-income voters, who were far more likely to support Landon. Although it had polled ten million individuals (of whom 2.38 million responded, an astronomical total for any opinion poll), it had surveyed its own readers first, then two other readily available lists, those of registered automobile owners and that of telephone users, groups that all had disposable incomes well above

570-574: The national average, and were also far wealthier than average Americans at the time, shown in part by their ability to afford a magazine subscription, a car and/or a phone during the depths of the Great Depression . Subsequent research concluded that as expected, this sampling bias was a factor, but non-response bias was the primary contributor to the magnitude of the error: people who strongly disliked Roosevelt were more likely to respond with their intention to vote for Landon. This debacle led to

600-415: The popular vote and 370 electoral votes. In November, Roosevelt won re-election in an unprecedented landslide, winning every state except Maine and Vermont, and winning the popular vote by 24.92 points . The magazine's error was a massive 39.08 points in the popular vote margin - with even larger errors in 20 of the 30 states that were predicted to be won by Landon but were actually won by Roosevelt - and

630-693: The position shortly after he formed his own polling company, the American Institute of Public Opinion, in 1935. Gallup had first become involved in polling in 1932, when he did some for his mother-in-law, Ola Babcock Miller , a longshot candidate for Iowa Secretary of State . She was swept in with the Democratic landslide of that year, furthering Gallup's interest in politics. In 1936, his new organization achieved national recognition by correctly predicting that Franklin Roosevelt would defeat Alf Landon in

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660-507: The publication. From 1916, the magazine conducted a poll regarding the likely outcome of the quadrennial presidential election. Prior to the 1936 election , the poll had always correctly predicted the winner. In 1936, the magazine's poll concluded that Republican candidate Governor Alfred Landon of Kansas was likely to be the overwhelming winner against Democratic incumbent President Franklin Delano Roosevelt , with 57.08% of

690-428: The result to within 1.4%, using a much smaller sample size of just 50,000. Gallup's final poll before the election predicted that Roosevelt would receive 55.7% of the popular vote and 481 electoral votes: the official tally saw Roosevelt receive 60.8% of the popular vote and 523 electoral votes. Funk %26 Wagnalls The encyclopedia was renamed Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Encyclopedia in 1931 and in 1945, it

720-662: The text of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia for the first editions of its encyclopedia. This licensed text was gradually replaced over the following years with content Microsoft created itself. In 1998, as part of the Information division of Primedia Inc. (the renamed K-III), the encyclopedia content appeared on the Web site "funkandwagnalls.com". This short-lived venture was shut down in 2001. Ripplewood Holdings bought Primedia's education division in 1999, which became part of Reader's Digest Association in 2007. In 2009, Funk & Wagnalls

750-546: Was acquired by World Book Encyclopedia . During certain scenes of banter between Dan Rowan and Dick Martin on the NBC comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In , after a particular anecdote of trivia or wisdom , Dick Martin would close with: "Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls!" Sales of the dictionary reportedly increased by 30% as a result of this recurring joke. On The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson , sidekick Ed McMahon would begin each " Carnac

780-521: Was based upon Chambers's Encyclopaedia : "Especially are we indebted to the famous Chambers's Encyclopaedia  ... With its publishers we have arranged to draw upon its stores as freely as we have found it of advantage so to do." Wilfred J. Funk , the son of Isaac Funk, was president of the company from 1925 to 1940. In 1934, Funk & Wagnalls started the Literary Digest Books imprint. It launched with seven titles with up to twenty-five

810-466: Was bought by Time , which converted its subscriptions to Time subscriptions. A regular column in The Digest , known as "The Lexicographer's Easy Chair," was produced by Frank Horace Vizetelly ; it duly noted that "(t)o decide questions concerning the correct use of words for this column, the Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary is consulted as arbeiter." Ewing Galloway was assistant editor at

840-481: Was highlighted in each release. The records were manufactured exclusively for Funk & Wagnalls by RCA Custom. In 1965, Funk & Wagnalls Co. was sold to Reader's Digest . In 1971, the company, now Funk and Wagnalls, Incorporated, was sold to Dun & Bradstreet . Dun and Bradstreet retained Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia , but other reference works were relinquished to other publishers. In 1984, Dun & Bradstreet sold Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., to

870-588: Was instrumental in the establishment of the Market Research Council, the National Council on Public Polls, and the American Association for Public Opinion Research . In 1948, with Claude E. Robinson , he founded Gallup & Robinson , an advertising research company. In 1958, Gallup grouped all of his polling operations under what became The Gallup Organization . Gallup died in 1984 of

900-572: Was known as New Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia , Universal Standard Encyclopedia , Funk & Wagnalls Standard Reference Encyclopedia , and Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia (29 volumes, 1st ed. 1971). The last printing of Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia was in 1997. As of 2018 , annual Yearbooks are still in production. The I.K. Funk & Company , founded in 1875, was renamed Funk & Wagnalls Company after two years, and later became Funk & Wagnalls Inc. , then Funk & Wagnalls Corporation . Isaac Kaufmann Funk founded

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